Mapping, GIS, QGIS & MapBasic

VicRoads and “Pseudo AMG”

Recently I was attempting to import some data sourced from VicRoads, but had a huge struggle trying to find the correct coordinate system to plot it in. The data had columns labelled amg_x and amg_y, so naturally I assumed this referred to either AMG66 zone 54 or 55. Neither of these fit though – the points were plotting about 200km out from their correct location.

It turns out VicRoads “helpfully” uses their own coordinate system, Pseudo AMG (described on pages 18 & 19 in this document). If you’re trying to import this data into a modern GIS, this coordinate system can be described by the proj string: